The DRBD extinguishers to the rescue
I HAVE a bulky folder containing clippings of newspaper reports about major fire outbreaks in the state for the past seven years. There are photos of bazaars, villages and longhouses razed to the ground.
I won’t open the folder unless I have a new cutting to add to the collection. The content makes depressing reading. There are too many sad stories in there – of personal property irretrievably lost, of precious human lives prematurely cut short, of the economic collapse of a whole community of people. I have developed a phobia: whenever a longhouse is in the news it is usually not good news. When a bazaar is in the news, I say: “Not again”; and when a Malay village is in the news, I say “Oh no”. Until last week. It was a change -- a pleasant change. It was good news: a fire fighting device, the work of one Dr Richard Belanda Dagang of LA (Lubok Antu) was being tried out. The prototype was tried out on a ‘fire’ at Mujat, a village in Serian and it was a success, according to the eyewitnesses.
I have been following the development of this device for some time and I must congratulate the chairman of the 1Malaysia Advisory Council, YB Joseph Salang Gandum, for the initiative to find ways and means whereby the spread of a longhouse fire may be controlled, particularly where the fire station is miles away from the scene of an inferno.
There have been considerable concerns among many people in longhouses of the danger of fires to their dwellings especially during the dry season from May to November each year, though fires may occur anytime of the year, when you least expect them. This new system may be an alternative to a full-fledged fire brigade for which there is no absolute substitute. This is a luxury meant for the benefit of cities and big towns.
I am told the main components of the system are two tanks full of water, hoses, and electricity from generators.
I don’t know how these coalesce to make the system work; ask the inventor himself.
I hope the government will accord due recognition to the work of Dr Richard and call the device by his name: ‘Dr Richard Belanda Extinguishers’ or DRBD Fire Fighters. And the inventor will have it patented eventually.
In an emergency, where a fire is destroying your house in front of your own very eyes, you would wish for anything at all to come to your rescue – anything that can be used to extinguish the fire. The first thing is water – a pail of water from the drain or the nearby stream, wind direction or heavy rain or even divine intervention. More to the point, a fire brigade. But fires happen anywhere and away from the nearest fire hydrant. So any other method would be useful. Dr Richard’s idea fits in nicely with the scheme of things.
The best ‘ equipment’ is, of course, the prevention of fire. As we say, prevention is better than cure. That calls for education on fire management -- beginning from the kitchen. The housewives are advised to extinguish the kitchen fire after all food is cooked; go back to the kitchen to ensure the fire is really extinguished before retiring for the night or before leaving the house.
Prime arson suspects are the granny and the grandchildren. I have heard stories about fires blamed on children playing with matches, and of grannies overboiling rice on kerosene stoves that explode when they run dry of oil. Many elderly people have a habit of sleeping with a small kerosene lamp near their bed or mat. Such a lamp is easily pushed over – the fuel spreads on bedding, and the next thing you know the house is on fire.
I have learnt from personnel from the Bomba about faulty wiring to longhouses as a possible cause of fire. In 2009, in a longhouse in Engkilili, I saw messy wiring, and I was told that a contractor from town had done it cheaply. Was he a qualified electrician and Sesco-registered? I enquired. No one answered. No one would answer such a silly question.
Faulty wiring is one of the causes, according to the Bomba, often the result of enthusiastic do-it-yourself practitioners who think you can connect a dozen electrical gadgets into one socket. Sad to say, you can’t …
Of course, the best policy is not to build any more longhouses. That’s my long-standing position and I haven’t changed it.
For the moment, however, let us wish the 1MAC will have enough funds for the financing of more DRBD Extinguishers and for distributing them to all the longhouses, the villages and the bazaars.
We all hope that the new system will work well in all places and all conditions. Every longhouse or village or bazaar will be equipped with this new system. Meantime, the Bomba will have to expand its services to the rural areas as well. By the way how many volunteers are there now? Will these volunteers help man the new system?
Last year an average of four longhouses were burnt down every month. Not counting the near misses -- it is not uncommon for a part of a house to catch fire but be easily put out. I’ve noticed marks on the walls in a few longhouses I have been to and could imagine the magnitude of disaster that would have befallen the people there if the fire had spread. A portable fire extinguisher would have been ideal in such a situation.
The new system will be widely used and should be installed in every longhouse. For a village of single houses there may be some modifications on the system to cater for as many houses or a cluster of houses; for a bazaar more than one may be required.
Anyway, with that hopeful note, I wish the inventor and the sponsors well in their undertakings.
Comments can reach the writer via columnists@theborneopost.com.